Well, it's been three weeks since I took over my new job as the shipping and receiving clerk at the newspaper where I work. In that time besides the official duties and responsibilities of the job I've discovered or found out things I would not have expected:

My predecesor was very good at looking busy when he wasn't.

There aren't as many quirky, eccentric, or just insane truck drivers making deliveries to us as there used to be.

The scenery is much better on day shift.

Some people you wouldn't expect in other departments have tattoos in places you wouldn't expect.

Women will go soft for any cute baby photo.

Now that I'm not losing as much wieght as before, people notice my weight loss even more.

Most of the people in the sales department are in their own little worlds.

People really can't figure out how old I am, except for one guy.

We have a guy who manages to smoke and spit at the the same time. Yuck!

Most folks honestly don't want to know how things operate in other depts., even when it would benefit them.

I'm much better at managing my time at work than when I'm not.

I'm not as good of a forklift driver as I thought, but I'm still better than most of our other ones.

There aren't as many quirky, eccentric, or just insane truck drivers making deliveries to us as there used to be.

That's a damn shame! I was the multimedia manager at a Borders Books store for a few years and frequently processed shipments (in and out). The UPS driver reminded me of a xenophobic, racist, sexist version of Jamie Farr from M*A*S*H*. Maybe the illegitimate child of Jamie Farr and Archie Bunker. Every time I saw him he'd launch into some longwinded diatribe about this or that conspiracy, communists this, gays that, declining morals here, terrorists there. Never a dull moment.

We usta have an electrician who was a big conspiracy freak here at the plant. He had theories on EVERYTHING. How the nazis had planned to use UFO's to win WWII (?),that the Goverment is using some weird technology to zombiefy use with a secret base in Alaska involving wind machines and sonic vibrations(???),that all Masons are controling the world,and that half of the world leaders are in cahoots to create a New World Order ...etc,etc,etc. We usted to call him Nazi Mike,not because he was a Nazi,but because he most of his bizzare conjectures invlolved secret Nazi organizations. Nice guy...crazy as a bed bug! Very intelligent tho-made you wonder...What If..? I told him about my theory on Bigfoot being a drop off from UFO's to f3ck with humans...kinda to get a rise outta humans...he just gave me a blank "Are you crazy?" kinda look!